I invite your attention back
to John the 19th chapter. John chapter 19. Holding your
place there, I want you to turn back with me to John chapter
12. Our Lord said in verse 27 of
John chapter 12, Now is my soul troubled, And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Then if you'll look
down at verse 33, this he said signifying the death that he
should die. This he said signifying the death
that he should die. And before we get back to John
19, in this chapter, our Lord began in earnest to lay out the
facts of His coming crucifixion to His disciples. And in this,
He declared that His hour had come. And not only that, He declared
also that He had come into the world specifically for this hour,
for this time. When He spoke these words, He
was talking about the cross that He was going to be, where He
would be crucified for the sins of His people. And this hour
was His hour. It was His hour. It was a predestinated
hour, and that hour had begun. Now like the Santa Ana winds
that begin as a warm, calm breeze out in the desert, But as they
move through the mountain corridor toward California, they are compressed,
and they increase in speed, and they are superheated by friction,
and they come out on the other side and set the world on fire.
They are just winds when they start. They are just a breeze.
When our Lord said, this hour is why I came. This is my hour. Christ's hour has come And time
has reached a critical mass right here. Prophecy has reached terminal
velocity. From Genesis to Malachi, word
upon word, every jot and tittle, all the messages of all the prophets
and Moses have been compressed. They've been compressed and compacted.
They've accelerated as they come to this straight way, this narrow
corridor to meet in this one man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They've come to His time, His
hour, and His glory. This is what all the prophets
gave witness to. And Moses gave witness to. And
now it's compressed to what he calls this hour or my hour. My hour. It's his time. All the Old Testament prophecies
and shadows and types and pictures are superheated with the zeal
of God. And the world, because of the
gospel, is set afire. It's changed. It's changed. One said of the twelve men that
preached the gospel, a king said, these twelve men turned the world
upside down. And here in this hour, when our
Lord begins to speak of this hour, everything is about to
change. This has been called a crisis
moment. And if you've ever been in a crisis, you know something
changes. For better or for worse, after
a crisis is over, something has changed. And this is the crisis
of the universe. This is the crisis of our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the crisis of all time
and eternity. Everything is about to change.
Old things are about to pass away. All things are about to
become new. Time and tide, occasion and circumstance,
human plots and schemes will never be the same. In this hour,
that's being spoken of here. The Savior, the Redeemer, it
is said of Him, Messiah, will be cut off, but not for Himself. This hour, He will finish the
transgression, make an end of sins, and make reconciliation
for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness, and seal up the
vision of prophecy, and anoint the most holy. That was promised
in Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. Of this hour, When our Lord Jesus Christ in
those few hours hung on the cross, that's the hour that He's speaking
of. Of this hour, His hour, it is written that He spoke these
words signifying the death which He should die. The death which
He should die. Now He didn't die by crucifixion. He was crucified. But when the
soldiers came, he was already dead. Death by crucifixion usually
resulted in someone breaking your legs so you would suffocate
while hanging down. He didn't break his legs because
he was already dead, but he didn't die by crucifixion. He didn't
die when God's wrath was poured out on him in those three hours
of darkness because he came out on the other side of that and
said, my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? He's still
alive. When did he die? when he voluntarily, willingly,
as only one person in all the history of humanity was able
to do, as the sovereign Lord, as the perfect man, he said,
now I'll quit living. And that's when he died. He gave
up the ghost. when he had finished the work
that he came to do. And giving up the ghost was the
final nail in the coffin of sin. When he gave up the ghost, when
he died, law was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. Because
the law had said, the soul that sinneth it shall die. He that
sins shall die. The wages of sin is death. And
when Christ was made to be sin for us, whom you know sin. When
he died, redemption occurred. Reconciliation occurred. Propitiation
occurred when He died. And He spoke of this hour signifying
the death which He should die. This hour, His hour, is the hinge
of time and eternity. Everything hangs right here.
Words of phenomenon pepper the prophecy of this hour. Words
of profound import throughout the Old Testament. Words of metaphorical
electricity. Everything changes at this hour.
It says, in this hour, mountains are laid low. It said valleys
are raised up. Crooked things are made straight. The earth trembles, rocks are
rent in twain, the sun is turned to darkness and the moon is turned
to blood. Vile sinners are made righteous,
felonious perpetrators are perfected, criminals are made clean every
wit, helots are made kings and priests, dunghill denizens are
clothed in royal garments. This hour is when this took place. His hour, the hour of His death. Something enormous is done this
hour. His hour. Something that can
never be undone. It can never be altered, discouraged,
or defeated. Is it any wonder, as Apostle
Paul pondered this hour, that he said, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I am crucified unto the world. Now back in our text
in John chapter 19, I want you to notice something. The Master is on the cross. The Savior hangs in agonies and
blood and three words describe everything that takes place here. In verse 28 you have two words.
It says this, After this, after what? After men had done their
worst. After this, Jesus knowing that
all things were now theirs, the first word, accomplished. That's
the first word. That the Scripture might be fulfilled. That's the second word. Then
in verse 30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He
said, It is finished. The third word is finished. Accomplished. Fulfilled. Finished. And He bowed His head and gave
up the ghost. All three of these words are
actually the same Word. Accomplished, fulfilled, and finished. They all find their origin in
one Word that is spoken of throughout Scripture. That Word is perfect. That's the Word. Perfect in the
original. That word, which any adjective
applied to it, would either diminish it or utterly become redundant. Perfect. If you add almost or
near, people say, well, that's almost perfect. Well, it ain't
perfect then. That diminishes it. It's near perfect. It ain't
perfect. It ain't perfect. Perfect stands alone. Add something
like completely perfect to it, or utterly perfect, and all you've
done has been redundant. Perfect is perfect. And that's
what our Lord said. He said when all things were
perfect, that the Scripture might be perfect, He said with a loud
voice, perfect. That's what all three of those
things mean. That's the meaning of perfect. What does that mean? The title
of my message, Accomplished, Fulfilled. Finished. Accomplished. Fulfilled. Finished. What's left for me
preacher? To report the findings. That's
all that's left for you. To report the findings. To give
witness to what took place. Declare what has been accomplished,
fulfilled, and finished. Because if they are accomplished,
if they are fulfilled, and they are finished, there is nothing
you can do with them, or about them. You cannot add to them,
nor can you take away from them, because they are accomplished,
they are fulfilled, and they are finished. And we cannot insert
ourselves here. It is Christ who hangs on the
cross. It's His hour and His time signifying the death which
He should die. He's accomplished something,
fulfilled something, and finished something. And so we can't insert
ourselves here. Our works will find no purchase
here. Even our telling it and telling
it again and again is but a recollection of the event itself. That's what
a preacher does. Why? What can I do? Well, I can
tell you that on the cross of Calvary, Christ accomplished,
fulfilled, and finished. That's what it says He did. That's
what it says He did. But what happened there? One
theologian said the three areas where most people are ignorant
concerning the Scriptures are these. What really happened in
the Garden of Eden? Most people don't have the clue
what happened in the Garden of Eden. What really happened on
the cross of Calvary? And what really happens when
God saves the sinner? Most people, almost everybody
is totally ignorant of those three things. This is the second
thing. The ignorance about the cross
of Calvary abounds. Ignorance abounds. Things are
said about this that are blasphemous, are foolish, superstitious, religious. When it talks about the cross
of Calvary, it's not talking about that Roman gibbet. That
little two pieces of wood nailed together or the single pole,
as it says in Greek, the starous, not talking about that. It's
not talking about a religious symbol which makes you feel holy
that you can wear around your neck or put on earrings or some
foolish notion like that. Those are religious properties.
They are suspicious. People say, well, I'm not suspicious
about it. Then give it to me. Let me stomp it on the floor.
I'll show you how religious and superstitious you really are.
That picture of Wild Bill Hickok you've got in the living room,
are you called Jesus? Give it to me if you ain't suspicious
about it. Let me set it on fire right in front of you. Say, oh,
can you do that? Yes, I can, because there's nothing
to it. When it's talking about the cross of Jesus Christ, it's
not talking about a religious play pretty. It's talking about
the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul rejoiced in
the cross, he was rejoicing in the crucifixion because by that
crucifixion, he was crucified to the world and the world was
crucified to him. He's talking about the one who
hung on that tree in agonies and blood. He's talking about
the one who was on that lonely wooden tower. He's talking about
Jesus Christ. What happened on that cross?
I'd like to know. If this is where everything points
to, if all of human history, if all of scriptural teaching
comes down to this single focal point, this hour, this cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to know what happened there.
I don't want to leave this world ignorant of that because evidently
this thing is just about the most important thing that's ever
happened in all the history of humanity. The cross of Jesus Christ. What
happened on that cross in those few hours that marked His hour,
this hour, that He would declare it as such? You know, when He
said, after He said that, He says, Father, glorify Thy Son.
And heaven opened up. And God said, I have glorified
Him. And I'm going to glorify You
some more. Where is it going to blow a fire? On that cross.
On that cross. What happened there? Seven things.
I'll be quick. The first thing is this. Remember these words. Accomplished,
fulfilled, finished. That's what happened there. Whatever
took place on the cross. Accomplished, fulfilled, and
finished. So it's done. You say, well,
I don't believe it. That doesn't matter. Your belief
or unbelief don't make it undone. That's done. Some people think
like that, but that's just done. Some people actually believe
that their faith somehow gives power to what Christ has done.
It's already done. You can't have no input in it. You can't
touch it. There are no human fingerprints
upon it. It's done. First thing is this. All the
prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled right here. Because Scripture declares that
all the Law and the Prophets gave witness of Jesus Christ. of Jesus Christ. No prophetic
stone was left unturned. The Seed of Woman is there on
that cross. The Lamb of God, the Paschal
Lamb is there on that cross. The Holy One of Israel is there.
The Messenger of the Covenant is there. The Refiner is there.
The Burnt Offering is there. The Sin Offering, the Peace Offering,
the Altar, the Ark of the Covenant, the High Priest, the Salvation
is there. And it's finished. It's accomplished. And it's fulfilled. Call His name Jesus, it says
in Matthew 1.21, for He shall save His people from their sin.
But there were those who doubted and didn't understand, who walked
with Christ and never understood really what was going on when
He went to that cross. They didn't get it. There were
some disciples on the road to Emmaus that were really disturbed
and upset. Peter had quit the business altogether. Simon Peter
said, I'm going fishing. I'm done with this Christian
business. I'm done with this preaching business. I'm done
with this disciple business. The Lord ain't here. He's gone. How can we live without Him? I'm going fishing. I quit. The
Lord said, you love me? Feed my sheep. But in Luke chapter 24, these
disciples on the road to Emmaus upset because Christ did not
establish what they thought was going to be an earthly kingdom?
Had not set the Jews and the Jewish nation against Rome and
kind of undid that horrible situation? And they were moaning and groaning
and Christ joined them on the road. And He said this, I've got John,
no wonder it don't look right, Luke, okay. Verse 25, Then he said unto them,
O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning where? At Moses. What's that? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy. There's five books written by
Moses. beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, all of them,
all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. What a teaching day that was
for the one who wrote the book to open up the book and said,
this is about me. What's about him? Genesis 1, one in the beginning
God, that's about Christ. For nothing was made that wasn't
made by him, it says in John 1. All those Old Testament prophets
and tacts are all about Jesus Christ. All those words are about
Jesus Christ. He's the Word of God. The Word made flesh and
dwelling among us. Then down in verse 44, after
He had went home with them and opened their eyes to who He was,
and they said, oh, after He departed, didn't our hearts burn within
us? He said in verse 44, and He said, These are the words
which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all
things must be Fulfilled. Same word. Perfect. "...which
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms concerning me. Then opened He their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures." Now, what do you
reckon He is making them understand? That the Scriptures weren't about
Him? You reckon that's what he's making them understand? No, he
just told them that they were all about him and that is the
matter he used to open up what this Bible's about. It's about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything, all the prophecies
were right here fulfilled on Calvary Street. In Hebrews 10,
it says this, that He came in the volume of the book that was
written of Him to do the will of God. He taketh away the first
and establishes the second. What does that mean? That He
set aside the Old Testament, or not the Old Testament, but
the Old Covenant because it had completely been fulfilled and
it's no longer in use. And it's not in use unless you
can find me a group of among the Jewish people, a tribal roster,
a priesthood with a high priest, a temple, a place for a burnt
offering, an altar of burnt offering, a golden altar, a table of showbread,
the Ark of the Covenant, the veil. Unless you can find me
this, then that thing is done. Of course, it's been done for
hundreds of years since Jesus Christ was on the cross. He'd
taken away the first. Well, don't we get benefit from
that? You get benefit from the Old Testament. The words. But there is no benefit in the
Old Covenant. None whatsoever. We're not under
the law, we're under grace. All that Old Testament, He taketh
away the first and establishes the second, the covenant of eternal
grace. When He was transfigured on the
Mount of Transfiguration, two characters came back to view
Him on that Mount, to talk with Him on that Mount. Now I don't
understand how it works. Einstein said there is such a
thing as a time-space continuum. But he didn't believe you could
travel across time. He believed that you could bend time and
kind of look across it. I don't know what that means,
but that's how smart people talk. But at any rate, I know this.
That when our Lord was transfigured, two men showed up. Moses and
Elijah. Where'd they come from? They'd
been dead a long time. They'd come from wherever they
was. And they traveled across time. Folks say, well, I know
my loved one in heaven. Well, we know Moses and Elijah.
Their names are still the same. What did they talk about? Did they talk about the oil slick
in the Gulf? It's a bad thing. Did they talk about abortion? Talk about perversion? They talk
about the movie show. Talk about drinking, smoking,
and chewing. What did they talk about? You know, these are two
men. This is the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah. What
did they talk about? Luke chapter 9 verse 31 said,
They spake of the death that he should accomplish at Jerusalem. An accomplishing death. What
a thing. Years of mine aren't going to
accomplish anything except make an undertaker a little richer.
That's all we're going to accomplish in our day. We'll accomplish
anything. You ever seen anybody stand beside a casket and say,
well, he finally got something right? Or say, well, he's really
doing good now. People don't talk like that because
it's over, you see, but not with Christ. When he died, accomplished,
fulfilled, finished all the Old Testament promises. The eternal purpose of God in
the salvation of the elect is accomplished and finished there
on Calvary Street. There is no good news if it's
not a finished work. You understand that? How good
news is it? Is it good news if I tell you
you've got something to do in this matter of salvation? Is that
good news? For a dead sinner? Not good news for me? For a ruined
sinner who don't even like God, who hates God by birth? who speaks
lies as soon as he's born, who has no interest in the things
of God, does not mind the things of God because I'm in the flesh?
Is that good news for me? What's good news? Salvation is
done. Not offered. Not proffered. Not provided. Done. Finished. Fulfilled. Accomplished. That's the language. God's eternal purpose in the
salvation of His people is accomplished. It is finished. Isaiah 53 says,
He was stricken for My people. For the sin of My people was
He stricken. And in verses 10 and 12 it says,
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. When thou shalt make his
soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. For by my servant's
knowledge he shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Find me anything iffy in that
whole comment. Anything depends upon you in
that scenario. It doesn't exist. I have loved
thee, he said in Jeremiah 31, which is one of the purest representations
of the gospel in all the Old Testament, quoted twice in the
book of Hebrews. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness I have drawn thee. I have drawn
thee. No man comes to Christ except
the Father which has sent him. Draw him, and I will raise him
up again in the last day. Our Lord said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is my Father's will which has sent me, that of all he has
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the
last day. Sound like anything wrong with that situation? Sound
like something ain't done there? Sound like something ain't going
to be accomplished there? Fulfilled, finished, accomplished. And our Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross. We used to have a little lady that attended here
years and years ago. She was from England. Her name
was Alice. She was full of spit and vinegar,
I liked her. She was a rowdy little old thing, wasn't big
as me, probably weighed 80 pounds soaking wet. She got cancer later
and died, spinal cancer. She used to come, but when she'd
hear about the cross, she'd get really mad. And she'd say, them
thugs, them thugs that nailed him to the tree, them thugs!
And I'd say, Alex, it's you and me. We drove those nails. You and me, we were gathered
for that purpose. We were gathered. This wasn't
just happenstance, it was an occurrence that came along when
Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles, somehow
had a business meeting, a teleconference maybe, and sat down and said,
here's what we're going to do this weekend. Well, let's crucify
this guy. That ain't what they said. They meant for a reason. Herod and Pontius Pilate were
enemies, but they became friends. The Gentiles and the Jews were
all enemies, but they became friends. All four of these characters
became friends. It says in Acts chapter 4, "...of
a truth against thy holy child Jesus." Both Pontius Pilate and
Herod and the Jews gathered together. You say, well, they gathered.
Oh, but they were actually gathered. It says they were gathered together.
What does that mean? That means somebody gathered
them. Who would do something like that? Who would gather a
bunch of people to put Jesus Christ on the cross? God Almighty
would. For it says, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate and the Jews and the Gentiles gathered together for to do whatsoever
had been foreordained to be done. That was the first use of the
word predestination in the New Testament. is the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it talks about not the fact
of the crucifixion, but the gathering of this herd, this mob of people. You say, well, they were just
acting in their own hatred. Yes, they were, but their hatred
was controlled. The wrath of man shall praise
Him, the rest He will restrain. Their hatred was controlled.
It was controlled, invented, and directed. Their hatred suddenly
came to this place at this hour, His hour, and they saw Him. And
Herod said, Get rid of Him. And Pontius Pilate said, I don't
want anything to do with the guy. I'll wash my hands of him,
but you can crucify Him. And the Gentiles cried, Crucify
Him. And the Jews cried, Crucify Him.
Let His blood be on our head. Why? Because they were ordained
to it. The purpose of God and the salvation
of His elect is taken care of. God who saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our own works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ
before the world began, 2 Timothy. In Revelation 13, verse 8, He
is said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
prior to the conception of the world. What does that mean? Well,
it means a long time ago. I'm sure of that. Long before he even entered into
this world as the God-man, he was already in purpose the Lamb
slain and accomplished, fulfilled, and finished here on the cross
of Calvary. Also, God's eternal love for
His Chosen is fulfilled here. It's fulfilled. God's eternal
love. We don't know anything about
love. Our love is unrequited. It ain't got no power to it.
We can try. It tries to do things, but we
can't never get nothing finished. Not so with God's love. You know
that's the truth I'm telling you, that your love can't do
nothing, don't you? You understand that? Someday, you young people
are going to have children. And they're going to lay sick
on a sickbed. And you love them. And you'd
give your life for Him. But it wouldn't do Him no good.
Why? Because your love is puny. And our love is fickle. And our
love is unrequited. Not God's. God's love goes all
the way to salvation. Always does. Romans 5, verse
6, And they said, Scarcely will one die for a righteous man.
For eventually some might die for a good man. But God commended
His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. While we were yet sinners. There's
love. Love for something so vile that
you can't even look at it except through a mediator. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. I John 3.16 says, Hereby perceive
we the love of God that He laid down His life for us. 1 John
chapter 4, verses 9 and 10 says, Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to propitiation
for our sins. There's love. And that was fulfilled,
accomplished, and finished on Calvary Street. Not only that,
God's holy hatred for sin was accomplished there. You don't
know nothing about sin, neither do I. We know that we're sinners,
but God has kept our mind from really embracing all that we
are. I don't want to know how vile I am. I don't want to know
how dark my mind is. What I do know of me scares me
to this. I'm so thankful for the grace of God. I don't know the depths of my
depravity. I know this, that there's not one thing that any
man's ever done on this earth that I'm not capable of and that's
not in me as a child of Adam. And if you think different than
that, you don't know who you are. You're still lost and you'll see. You think of the thing you despise
the most, the thing that's most terrible to you and horrifying
to you, that you think, if I did that, oh, I couldn't live with
myself. Well, that's what you are, by nature, born into this
world. God sent His Son to die in the
room instead of sinners. But if you want to know what
sin is, don't look at the bar and the bordello. Don't look
at the pornography. Don't look at any of those things,
the homosexuality. Don't look at the thieves and
the crooks and the politics. Don't look there, because that's
sin, but it ain't sin. You don't see it as it is. You
want to know what sin is? When Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
was made to be sin for us, God poured out His wrath on Him.
There's where you'll find out what sin's about. That's what
you and I deserve by nature, what He got on Calvary Street.
You want to know what sin deserves? You want to know what you deserve?
You deserve to be hung on a tree. You deserve for the sun to go
black and you to be in utter darkness. You deserve for God's
wrath to be poured out upon you, for God to roll up His sleeve
and beat you to death. That's what you deserve. Well,
why ain't you had it? Somebody finished this business,
fulfilled it, and accomplished it. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Man is no good. If you add man
up to zero, you've gone too high. Man is vile. He's not worth a
pitcher of warm spit. He drinks iniquity like water.
He lives on a dung hill and likes it. He's a maggot, a worm of
the dust, a grasshopper. He's nothing, less than nothing,
vanity, lighter than vanity. He's a devil, full of devilment. He's a hater of God and all that's
good. But you don't know anything looking
at him about sin. And you look to the cross. And
there you'll find out what God thinks of sin. God must punish
sin. Because He's holy and just. And He's either going to punish
it in a substitute or He's going to punish it in you. But nobody
escapes. Thank God Jesus Christ stood
between me and the wrath of the Father and soaked up all the
wrath, so none is due me. Fifthly, the complete redemption
of the elect is accomplished and finished there. Scripture
declares it this way, He hath separated our sins from us as
far as the east is from the west. He has brought it out like a
great cloud, our transgressions. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died. Who is
He that condemns? It is Christ that died. He has
risen again. He is even at the right hand
of the Father, making intercession for us. No charge can be laid
to God's people because Christ has met that He's fulfilled the
law's demands. He's accomplished the penalty
of the law. He's finished what the law can
do. He's finished it. He hath made
Him to be sin for us, and sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. For by one offering this man
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. perfected forever,
so much so that God will remember their sins no more. Sixthly,
the manifestation of the fullness of God and all His glorious attributes
is accomplished on the cross and there alone. You can't see
it anywhere else. You may see God's power in creation,
His omnipotence. You may catch a glimpse of it
in His providence, but you don't really understand Him as Creator
until you see Him on the cross. You don't understand Him as Sovereign
until you see Christ on the cross. Holiness there is fully manifested. Justice fully manifested. Vengeance,
righteousness, mercy, grace, love, all of it is manifested
right there. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Where? In
this hour. His hour. Finally, the text, the context,
the introduction, the body, the illustration, the conclusion
My message is finished, fulfilled, and accomplished. He's the topic
and the theme, the rhyme and the reason, the language and
the syntax, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the
verb, the preposition, and the participle. He's the sentence
and the paragraph. He's the ibn and the opsith and
the library of spiritual knowledge. Paul said, I determine, I determine
to know nothing among you, then what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's my message. That's the
message of every true gospel preacher. He's not a community
organizer. He's not somebody that tries
to straighten people's lives out. He don't give people rules
and regulations to live by. He don't watch care over them.
He don't control their lives with threats or with promises
of reward. He don't do none of that. That's
not his job. You see, it's this hour, this
hour, this man, what he did, And as Pope Paul said, you crazy
people that's choosing up between preachers and fighting this battle
and fighting that battle, who has the best gift and all that
junk and Corinth? You listen to me! Here's what
you're going to hear from me. Preacher, we need to straighten
out this matter of who's the best preacher. Here's what you're
going to hear from me. I determine to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach not ourselves but Christ
and ourselves, your servants, for His sake. Paul said, this
is all I want to know. After preaching 35 years, he
said, this is all I want to know. I want to know Him. I want to know Him. In fact,
everything else that I've done or ever will do is nothing but
done that I may win Him and be found in the power of His resurrection.
Jesus Christ, in Him crucified. The cross of Christ. The event. His hour. The hour of our salvation. Father, bless us through our
understanding, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.